“What I see in the world of gaming is that it’s very narrowly focused,” he said. “And it’s marketing to the same people that are gonna buy games over and over again. And there are very few companies that are pushing beyond those limits – trying to actually get outside the people who read NeoGAF.”

The exceptions prove the rule, obviously.

“I mean, you can do it sometimes; Modern Warfare does it very well, and Halo does it very well. They’re huge games with a lot of money behind them. But still, I think a similar type of person is buying those games,” Broadbent added.

The developer went on to say that “every gamer” wants the “cool things, the little things, to be huge and successful”.

PixelJunk Shooter director Shouichi Tominaga added that “it’s a mistake for developers in general to trust marketing.”

He said: “Marketing defines the boundaries for what’s ‘good,’ and then tells the developer to make that. So don’t trust marketing too much with that side of it.”

Q-Games’ PixelJunk series is self-published in Japan, while Sony handles promotion for the acclaimed games elsewhere.

The company’s latest from the property, Pixeljunk Shooter, released in December for PS3.